Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
An article in a random travel magazine - about coyotes freely roaming the banks of the Rio Grande right in the middle of the city of Albuquerque - compels talented but socially-isolated artist Margaret Shaw to pack up and move from New York City to New Mexico. she quickly settles into a Chicano/Mexican barrio near the river, spending long days at local junkyards attempting to satisfy another recent obsession - her determination to move her art from two dimensions to three. As she collects rusty parts from obsolete machinery, she imagines welding them into sculptures, and she never looks back at the sorrowful past she left behind in the east.Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Rico Garcia, a car mechanic known locally as "El Rey," the king of low-rider welders, and impulsively asks him to teach her to weld. Unlike Margaret, whose lifestyle is completely solitary, Rico lives with his wife, three daughters, a granddaughter, and his mother. There is no common ground between the two, but once they begin welding lessons at Rico's shop, a deep, instantaneous friendship spakrs, igniting intense, chaotic self-reflection and driving them both to confront the damage they have suffered in their individual pasts.
Against this backdrop of emotional unpredictability, Margaret and Rico embark on an odyssey, both grounded and mystical, that carries them through the silent, wide open spaces of the high desert to the edge of healing, and perhaps beyond.
Editorials
Library Journal
A solitary artist in New York City, Margaret Shaw was raised by her kindly grandfather after her hippie parents disappeared somewhere in India when she was only three. Now on her own in the late 1990s, Margaret moves to New Mexico after reading a travel article on Albuquerque. There she becomes interested in metal sculpture and seeks out an experienced welder, Rico Garcia, to help her learn welding. Rico and his wife, Rosalita, married young and are going through a rough patch in their relationship. Although Rico and Margaret are strongly attracted to each other, this is not a romance novel with a tidy ending. Mars builds suspense by alternating chapters set in New Mexico with brief scenes that gradually reveal what happened to Margaret's father decades ago. VERDICT This well-written novel with a Southwestern feel is about redeeming the wrongs of the past. This touching and absorbing story makes you wish for a sequel to see what the future holds for these likable characters.—Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MAKirkus Reviews
When her New York options seem to run out, artist Margaret Shaw heads to New Mexico to remake her work and her life. Margaret has given up on New York. Although she acknowledges that her inability to break into the art world is partly due to her thin skin—the legacy of her parents' abandonment more than 30 years before—this failure weighs on her. At 37 she packs up the most portable of her paintings and her dog Magpie and heads west. She seeks space, a new beginning and the chance to trade in her paints for sculpture. A rusty lock, found on the beach, is her totem, and once settled into a rundown adobe house, she begins her search for someone who can teach her how to weld. Her appearance at Rico Garcia's garage is a revelation for them both. As the unhappily married Rico teaches Margaret the secrets of metal, the wounds of both their past lives are revealed. It's a complex relationship, complicated by their mutual desire, but as he comes to terms with his violent family she begins to open up. Meanwhile, half a world away, Margaret's father reappears and begins to take small steps toward re-entering the world. As in her previous work (Anybody, Any Minute, 2008, etc.), Mars focuses on the new start—a woman's rediscovery of herself after she moves, rather impulsively, to a new place. Along the way the author writes of the dusty landscape as well as the almost-barren emotional landscape of her two main characters. At times the tone is stilted, almost formal, but the overall effect is incantatory, transforming the hard-luck story of two ordinary people into something magical. An inspiring, offbeat story of an artist who trusts her instincts and finds herself regaining her life.Book Details
Published
February 28, 2012
Publisher
Permanent Press, The
Pages
293
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781579622268